Getting Kinda Personal Here…

I don’t usually like talking about overweight issues (most fat people don’t!), but this is too dramatic and awesome not to share. (Besides, I’m looong overdue for an update)

I’ll give you the punch-line first, and then the long version.

In a nut-shell: I weigh 204 pounds!!!!!

Now let me tell you why all the exclamation points.

I started college in 1994 at about 200 lbs. even. By the time I graduated in 2000, I was holding steady at about 225-230, and that hasn’t changed in the last decade. No big surprise…eating plenty of (yummy) junk and not exercising. I’ve been resigned to the fact that I’ll pretty much always be that way.

Lent started a little over 2 weeks ago on Wednesday, February 6. A couple of times in college I observed Lent by sacrificing something (once, I gave up TV/Movies/Video Games…and another year I gave up soda). I decided to give up soda again this year, since that worked well for me before. In addition to the spiritual purpose, I reasoned that we would save a little money, and it would be more healthy for me. I had been drinking 3-4 cans of soda a day up till then.

In conjunction with this, I had also been invited to be a regular at a 10-hand Texas hold ‘em poker home game. It’s a $20 buy-in each Wednesday night. It’s a great bunch of guys, and I love the camaraderie and I really love the game. But to off-set that weekly cost, I made a deal with my wife to not eat out for lunch or breakfast any more (which I was easily spending $30-40 a week on). Again…a side benefit would be health reasons.

So for the last 2-3 weeks, I’ve cut WAY down on eating out, (there’ve been a couple times where we were out as a family out of necessity) and have cut soda out entirely. In fact, I spent an entire week of nothing to drink except water because we ran out of apple juice at home. (I finally bought some more juice last night.)

ALSO, a few weeks ago, my brother and I were talking about how much food we eat…that even when we’re getting full, we plow ahead and finish what we’ve got in front of us, etc. Restaurants really help promote over-eating with gargantuan-sized portions. So I’ve been trying to eat smaller portions as well. (Only 2 pieces of pizza instead of 4, not going back for seconds, etc.)

So even though I have really changed the kind of food I eat, and I’m certainly not exercising…I’ve lost about 25 pounds over the last 2-3 weeks. When I checked the scale this morning, I was positive I was going to be around 215…when I saw 204 I did a literal double-take and shook my head, and started over a couple times to make sure it was accurate.

I never dreamt that I would actually be able to break under 200 ever again…but at this point, I’m so stinkin’ close, I wanna do it just for the sake of doing it if for no other reason.

Since have access to a corporate gym in my building (for free), maybe I’ll even think about utilizing that…even if it’s just once or twice a week/month. =)

Kind of a long post, and I’ll be surprised if more than 3-4 people read this, but I know that at least those people will probably enjoy that I shared.